Station and on board train announcements - merged topic, ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[inspector_blakey]

Although on some occasions it may be, I don't think PA^▸ (Public Address) problems are always down to the wiring or speakers in individual coaches. Announcements are often clearly audible when broadcast from one of the PA handsets (adjacent to the buffet counter in coach F or in the senior conductor's office in coach A) but not the other.

[Phil]

Some of the PA^▸ (Public Address) speakers in First Class when they do the announcements on HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s you can't hear because it's so distorded, Its sometimes so loud that it's painful to listen to 

Dodgey wiring I would say

This is so true. And the quiet carriage is always the loudest!

I also take exception to the catering trolley having to "bleep" every time the vendor tells it someone has had a drink or a biscuit. Utterly, utterly pointless, and so bl**dy irritating.

[thetrout]

This is so true. And the quiet carriage is always the loudest!

I also take exception to the catering trolley having to "bleep" every time the vendor tells it someone has had a drink or a biscuit. Utterly, utterly pointless, and so bl**dy irritating.

I would avoid Voyagers like the plague then

My experience of those is that there is alarms and beeps and things going off every five minutes 

But the one thing that annoys me but at the same time I find incredibly funny is when people continue talking on their mobile phones dispite the train being in a tunnel...  *hints at the businessman, you'll have lost the signal dude *

[r james]

Well I was on a HST^▸ (High Speed Train) today between Bridgend and Cardiff, and I can confirm that there was an automated announcement played.  It gave various information about the safety instructions as well as information about first class etc. 

Is this coming to all HSTs?

[Btline]

Virgin have published their May 2009 Euston - North Wales timetable in Welsh.

[Phil]

Virgin have published their May 2009 Euston - North Wales timetable in Welsh.

Are they also available in English, or are they only published in Welsh?

[Btline]

Virgin have published their May 2009 Euston - North Wales timetable in Welsh.

Are they also available in English, or are they only published in Welsh?

Both!

I wonder why they hav wasted money and paper doing this? Does anyone on the line not speak English?

[Phil]

I wonder why they hav wasted money and paper doing this? Does anyone on the line not speak English?

Probably a majority in the Euston area doesn't speak English - but I'd wager a fair bet that not one of them speaks Welsh either.

[inspector_blakey]

I see no problem whatsoever with Virgin (or any other TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) for that matter) producing bilingual timetables for Wales. One thing that you will notice if you spend any time there, outside the big cities, is that in many many places the first language in use in day to day life is...wait for it...Welsh! Go into any shop in most of Wales and you're guaranteed to hear the language being spoken, with English very much the second. People will quite happily talk to you in English but for the most part they converse in Welsh.

Now, I speak almost no Welsh (the bits that I do have been gleaned from learning to understand the ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC)) platform announcements) but it seems to me totally reasonable for a Welsh person to expect to be able to read something in their first language in their home country. It's not for me to suggest that they shouldn't be able to just because I can't understand it!

[johoare]

I think it would be interesting to know the proportion of welsh people who speak welsh as their first language? If anyone happens to know..

[TerminalJunkie]

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=cym

[Chris from Nailsea]

From wikipedia,

Welsh as a first language is largely concentrated in the less urban north and west of Wales, principally Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire, Anglesey, Carmarthenshire, north Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, parts of west Glamorgan, north-west and extreme south-west Powys, although first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales.

[johoare]

Thank you for both your replies.. I guess I was being lazy and could have looked that up myself! 

[inspector_blakey]

It's interesting just how sharp the divide between Welsh and English-speaking areas can be. I have family living right on the border between Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. Go ten minutes down the road into Carmarthenshire and day to day business is conducted in Welsh. Ten minutes the opposite way into Pembrokeshire and English is very much the first language.

[Mookiemoo]

I'm hearing this at slough at the moment but its not the only place I've heard it.

You are standing on the platform and before the train arrives the tannoy goes "Slough, this is Slough".  No I could understand that being announced on the incoming train.

But surely people on the platform are aware of where they are? 

Is this really Slough, Sorry, I thought I was standing on a platform in Bristol!